For my money, only a few comic stories dealing with dinosaurs as
subject matter have been fit to print. Masashi Tanaka's Gon,
published by D.C. Comics' Paradox Press, comes to mind. Ricardo Delgado's Age
of Reptiles (which I reviewed a few months ago), published by Dark
Horse Press, is also a pleasing read for dino fans. And now, another title
is added to my list, with Paleo: Tales of the Late Cretaceous by
Jim Lawson and Peter Laird.

This
is the same Peter Laird of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame, but
don't look for any kind of karate-crazy reptiles in this six-issue series;
the only reptilian creatures within these pages bear a much closer
resemblance to the Jurassic Park variety.

The
series tells a different story with each issue (as of issue #3), depicting
the struggles of living in the cretaceous period; imagine Wild
Discovery with dinosaurs. The stories have a very true-to-life feel to
them, depicting the seeming cruelty of the natural world.

In
the third issue, a baby stegoceras, having lost it's mother to a pack of
dro-maeosaurs, seeks comfort from a nesting quetzalcoatlus, only to be
tossed off of the nest, down a rocky embankment, to his death. So, this is
not The Land Before Time for those seeking cute dino-comics for the
wee ones.

Writer
Jim Lawson utilizes narration to keep the story moving, which, I believe,
detracts from the story itself. His pencils are excellent, brilliantly
rendering the main characters in both action sequences and still shots.
For this reason, I believe events could be satisfactorily depicted without
the use of the narration box (see Age of Reptiles). This is still,
however, a great series, worth picking up all six issues. Highly
recommended.

Your
local comic store should be able to order Paleo for you. Bookstore chains
such as Waldenbooks may also yield results. Call 1-888-comicbook for the
comics store near you.

Paleo;
Tales of The Late Cretaceous, published by Zeromayo Studios, 24 pages,
$2.95.

Review
by Mark Allen

Light's
End Audio Series

Michael Vance has teamed with William Windom to present an
incredible collection of SF and fantasy stories. Set in the eerie town of
Light’s End, Maine, these stories have been called “[a] meshing of
myth and reality, [of] stack details of place, an...unromantic vision of
horror...” Light’s End is a gathering place for the worst in human
nature.

Mr. Windom's impressive experience has
prepared him well for the telling of these scary tales. He is well known
for his TV roles on Murder, She Wrote, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone,
All In The Family, and Barney Miller. He also won an Emmy
for his TV series My World…and Welcome to It. His movie roles in To
Kill a Mockingbird and True Crime won him additional acclaim.
His stage performances as James Thurber and Ernie Pyle have entertained
thousands. He's performed in eighteen Broadway plays, countless radio
shows, and several books-on-tape.

Michael Vance's work is published in numerous
magazines. He has appeared as a syndicated columnist and cartoonist in
over 500 newspapers. His history book, Forbidden Adventure has been
called a "benchmark in comics history”. Vance, best known for his Suspended
Animation columns, briefly wrote the comic strip Alley Oop and
his own strip for five years, Holiday Out. He also wrote comic
books including Straw Men, Angel of Death, The Adventures of Captain
Nemo, and Bloodtide. His work has appeared in comics
anthologies, and he is listed in the Who's Who of American Comic Books.
With novelists Mel Odom and R.A. Jones, he co-wrote Global Star, a
world where babies born with bowling balls in their stomachs are common,
and the New York Times is “trash journalism”.

Special Offer!

Suspended Animation readers
will be able to order a copy of Lights End Volume 1 personally autographed by
both William Windom and Michael Vance. Volume 1 contains the stories
"A Change of Heart" and "Cross Purposed."

What are you waiting for? It's just
$19.95 signed or $11.95 not,
plus shipping.

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